Top Home Improvement Disasters

Top Home Improvement Disasters ? Disasters during improvement of a home is at the top of our discussion today. You would not believe some of the things people have gone through just to make an attempt at improving their home. When things go wrong, they can go very wrong in a hurry.

As a former real estate appraiser, I have seen a lot of things in my day. Don?t worry, I will protect the guilty by not releasing their names, but will be sure to share a few details with you in hopes you won?t follow in their footsteps. The mistake outlined below is avoidable, but for some reason these home owners were not able to pull off their improvements without disaster.

top home improvement disasters

Most disasters to home improvement projects strike because the homeowner doesn?t want to contact a professional to assist with the job. They figure the economy is down, so they will take this opportunity to work their handy skills around the home, but this often ends in tragedy.

Over-Improvement ? The first disaster I want to talk about when it comes to home improvement is one we call in the business of appraising property an over-improvement. This term means the homeowner spent more money on a project than it will return in the market.

Today, you almost expect your home improvement projects not to net the full value of the project because the market is falling. However, as an appraiser, I experienced an over-improvement to the level I never thought I would see in my lifetime.

A family living in a far norther suburb of Chicago decided they were going to renovate their kitchen during the real estate boom of the mid-2000?s. The market was trending upwards, so they decided they would go for it.

The family installed a remarkable kitchen, one of the best I have every seen. They had the Viking stove, granite counter tops, maple flooring, Oak cabinets, the large Sub Zero refridgerator. It was unbelieveable.

My jaw hit the floor when I came into the kitchen because it was so beautiful, yet so out of place. The kitchen must have cost the homeowners at lest $75,000 to install. It wasn?t that large, but it was ?impressive.

The reason it wasn?t that large is because the house wasn?t that large. We are talking about a tri-level home with maybe 1,2000 square feet of living space and a $75,000 kitchen.

The value of the home was about $140,000, so this kitchen was fabulous, but it was out of place in the market. They spent $75,000 on the home improvement of their kitchen in a market where kitchens cost about $5,000 to $7,000 max.

This was about a $70,000 over-improvement to their kitchen. I couldn?t give them any value to the kitchen work beyond what was typical in the market. It was amazing, but the disaster was they were not able to get all that money they spent back in the valuation of the appraisal.

The family was hoping to get a great appraisal so they could refinance and pull some of the money they spent on the kitchen out of the home so they could replenish their savings, but that wasn?t they case. They were stuck and there was nothing I could do for them.

This disaster could have been avoided had they made one simple phone call to a real estate agent or an appraiser to discuss their plans in the kitchen. Any competent professional would have told them this wasn?t going to pan out, not even in a skyrocketing market like the mid-2,000?s.

Do you know anyone that has made a major over-improvement or survived?Top Home Improvement Disasters?

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